About Us

Riseholme has been the site of training and education for the land-based industries for more than 50 years and, with millions being invested in state-of-the-art facilities, we’re taking the College into the next generation.

Our Campus

Take a look around our fantastic College campus, located just three miles from the vibrant and historic city of Lincoln. Jump inside our Virtual Tour, browse our Campus Map and find out what life is like as a student here.

Corporation

External Members

Rosey Dunn

Rosey is a first generation farmer, in partnership with her husband and son. The farm is a mix of beef, sheep and arable and Rosey undertakes an active role on the farm.

Having recently stepped down from many years as an NFU Officeholder, Rosey still takes a keen interest in political and industry matters. As well as serving as City of York Parish Councillor.

Richard Ellison

Richard was born in Bristol in 1951. A graduate of the University of Sussex he joined the National Farmers Union as a Graduate Trainee and remained with the organisation throughout his working life. Richard was appointed North East Regional Director in 1990 covering Yorkshire, County Durham and Northumberland. His role was to manage the work of the NFU in the region, to promote the interests of farmers and the rural communities through political representation and to maintain a high profile for the organisation and for the industry as a whole.

Neil Franklin

Neil is a property lawyer and heads Rollits' Agriculture and Renewable Sector teams. He is also the partner responsible for the firm's human resources, based in Hull, but also spends time at the firm's York office. Neil is also the Chair of Hull and East Yorkshire Centre for the Deaf.

John Hurst

John graduated from Walford College in 1976 following two years in farm management in Shropshire. For the last 30 years, until his retirement in July 2018, John worked for Farmcare, originally Booker Farming which then became part of the Co-ops farms and latterly the Wellcome Trust. John was responsible for the management of 26,000 acres on five estates across the country. He was also responsible for the company’s Management Trainees and Apprenticeship training schemes.

John attended the 40th Worshipful Company of Farmers - Advanced Farm Management Course in 1990 and he still meets up annually with his fellow colleagues. He is a member of the Oolitics farmer discussion group whose 14 members meet monthly. John is married to Gill, they have two children David and Emma. John lives at Saxby all Saints on the South Bank and is a keen cyclist and walker.

Kevin Kendall (Vice Chair)

Kevin studied agriculture at Myerscough College in the 1970’s followed by several years of working practically in farming on dairy, beef, sheep, pig and arable farms. After gaining a teaching qualification, he taught agriculture for 10 years at Oaklands College in Hertfordshire. In 1988 he went to Askham Bryan College as a lecturer in Agriculture and stayed for 20 years in a range of positions but finally as Assistant Director Food, Farming and Innovation and Farms Director. At this time, he was also an Additional Inspector with Ofsted for Land Based Colleges and started reviewing higher education on a part time basis with the QAA.

In 2008 Kevin moved to Bishop Burton College as Deputy Principal Higher Education, where he stayed until he developed this own business in 2013 working as a Quality Manager with QAA and offering consultancy and project work to colleges.

Kevin has three adult children and two aged 11 and 6 years, and lives in Walkington.

Alan Menzies (Chair)

Alan is currently Director of Planning and Economic Regeneration with East Riding of Yorkshire Council. The directorate combines economic development with planning and development management and sustainable community functions.

Angela Moran

Angela was born in Hull and graduated from Edinburgh University before working for RHM Agriculture as a nutritionist for 4 years. In 1984 she joined Page Feeds in Tadcaster, which eventually became part of AB Agri in 2001. Angela has done a variety of roles including marketing, purchasing, supply chain management, transport, commercial account management, nutrition, quality assurance, food safety and business development. She was recently Head of Alternative Proteins and moved to a new role as Director of Feed Safety in February 2016.

Externally, Angela is involved with the Agricultural Industry Confederation, the European Feed Manufacturer’s Federation, the FEFAC Sustainability Committee and the Food Standards Agency’s Advisory Committee on Animal Feedingstuffs.

Angela lives with her husband and son on a small grassland farm in North Yorkshire. She enjoys riding her horse, seeing her extended family, doing as much amateur theatre as time allows and being part of that rural community.

Robert Rook

Robert is a former student of the College. He now farms 1850 acres of land near Market Weighton, comprising both arable and livestock including cattle, an egg laying enterprise and a duck fattening enterprise for Cherry Valley Foods. He is currently Chairman of the Stabiliser Cattle Company and a director of BATA.

Martyn Thomas

Martyn was born and brought up in Sheffield. He studied Economic and Social History at the London School of Economics and Political Science and enjoyed eleven years in London, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Touche Ross and Co.

On moving to Beverley, Martyn worked for Kingston Communications in various roles for eleven years before moving to TSYS International based in York, where he is currently Director, Finance & Accounting. Martyn recently relocated to his hometown of Sheffield with his wife, but has maintained his links with East Yorkshire.

Martyn has two children, both living and working abroad, and two step-children at school in Sheffield. He is trying to keep up with the fitness-obsessed city, is a dedicated supporter of Sheffield United, and sometime trumpet player.

Andrew Ward MBE

Andrew is Lincolnshire born and bred and after being educated at Riseholme College from 1978 to 1980, he now farms 730ha at Leadenham, in Lincolnshire, growing wheat, spring malting barley, sugar beet and oilseed rape. He is the founder of Forage Aid, which he launched in April 2013 to gather up and deliver donated forage and straw to help livestock farmers in the north and west during times of snow and flood. Forage Aid is now a recognised charity of which Andrew is a Trustee and Chairman. He is a Board Member of RASE’s Innovation for Agriculture. His farm is an Agrii ifarm Trial Centre specialising in soil and crop nutrition.

Always a keen sportsman, after playing county hockey and tennis, Andrew spent many years supporting his two daughters around the Eventing circuit. He also enjoys watching rugby and football and playing snooker.

David Waxman

David is now retired after over 40 years work in education. This comprised three distinct phases – firstly secondary school teaching in Hull, then working as an Education Officer for Sheffield Local Education Authority (including a year as Acting Director of Education in 1996) and finally carrying out a wide variety of independent consultancy work across the UK. The independent work included a regular commitment of developing policy advice for a small education trade union.

David has been a governor of schools in Tameside and Sheffield and was Chair of two interim Executive Boards supporting schools subject to special measures in the former. He served for eight years on the governing body of Sheffield College and was Chair of the Corporation for the final two years.

Having attended school and worked in Hull, David then spent over thirty three years living in Sheffield before moving to Beverley in 2018. He is married with one stepson and his main hobby interests are playing Bridge and following Hull City.

Staff Members

David Drury

David has been a member of the marketing team at Bishop Burton College since August 2014. Prior to that, he spent 10 years working in London, specialising in developing multi-platform marketing campaigns for the world’s leading brands including Procter and Gamble, PepsiCo and Sky. David is a BBC-trained media spokesperson and has extensive media relations experience.

As part of his role at Bishop Burton, David sits on the steering committee of two national collaborative outreach projects that aim to increase the number of young people progressing on to higher education. He has also previously worked for the National Apprenticeship Service, where he was part of the team that created National Apprenticeship Week - now an annual celebration of apprenticeship pathways in the UK.

Andrew Silvester

Andrew has been a member of Riseholme College Services to Business and Engineering teams for the past two years. He has recently been recognised for all his hard work with the College “Striving for Excellence” Award. Andrew started his working career in 1980, studying his apprenticeship at Riseholme College through local Massey Ferguson dealer Peacock & Binnington (Louth) on a day release basis and once qualified continued to work in the local agricultural machinery industry. Prior to joining the College he was the Service Manager for 12 years at a very large John Deere, and latterly Case dealership, in Lincolnshire. Andrew is a member of the Engineering Council (EngTech) and the Institute of Agricultural Engineers (AMIAgrE) and completed his Level 5 Certificate in Education and Training in 2017, graduating at Beverley Minster.

Andrew previously was a Parent Governor for eight years at a local junior school responsible for Health and Safety and Information Technology.

College Principal

Bill Meredith

Bill was born in Lincolnshire and studied Agriculture and Crop Protection at Harper Adams. He has spent his career to date in specialist land-based education, primarily with Bishop Burton College.

Following various teaching and management roles, Bill became the College's Employer Partnership Director and oversaw the College's achievement of the Training Quality Standard - a notable first among land-based colleges. Then followed a four-year period with the University of Lincoln as Head of Agriculture and Land-based Studies at Riseholme College.

In 2012, Riseholme's Further Education contract was awarded to Bishop Burton College following competitive tendering and Bill was appointed Vice Principal of the merged institution. He was subsequently heavily involved in the development of the College’s new campus on the Lincolnshire Showground. Bill was appointed Acting Chief Executive and Principal in November 2017 following the resignation of the previous Principal.

Bill is passionate about sustainable farming and skills development. He has 3 adult children and lives in Beverley, East Yorkshire.

Co-opted Members of Committees

Norman Broxham (Audit)

Norman is a qualified chartered accountant and became a partner in the accountancy firm for which he worked in 1974, specialising in shipping and fishing industry clients. He became a partner with Price Waterhouse in 1990, a position which he held until his retirement in 1995. Since then he has provided advisory services for a number of companies and served as a director of Andrew Marr International Ltd and Central Land Holdings Ltd.

It is the Corporation’s responsibility to bring independent judgement to bear on issues of strategy, performance, resources and standards of conduct.